Frederic A. Gibbs, 89, Key Epilepsy Researcher

October 20, 1992|By Kenan Heise.

Dr. Frederic A. Gibbs, 89, a psychiatrist and neurologist, played a key role with his late wife, Erna, in explaining the causes, diagnoses and treatments of epilepsy. They pioneered the use of the electroencephalograph

(the EEG, or brain wave test) and saw it become a diagnostic mechanism available even in small hospitals throughout the world.

A resident of Wilmette and of Valparaiso, Ind., he died Sunday in Whitehall North in Deerfield.

Medical knowledge of epilepsy has changed dramatically since and because he started to research it in the 1930s. Then, it was believed that epileptic attacks were caused by spasms of cerebral blood vessels. Today, it is understood that it is caused by malfunctioning electrochemistry in brain cells.

What also is known is that there are many forms of epilepsy, many of which do not even cause clinical seizures. It has been shown that is possible to recover from epilepsy and that there is a broad range of effective treatments.

Working with a colleague, Albert Grass, he debunked the previously held theories about epilepsy. The two of them, along with Erna Gibbs, established the practicality of the EEG, invented by the German psychiatrist Hans Berger, whose device magnified feeble brain-wave currents a million times. The three Americans improved it and conducted the basic research that turned the EEG into a valuable diagnostic tool.

Dr. Gibbs and his wife founded the American EEG Society, the Epilepsy Clinic at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, the American Medical EEG Association and the Brain Research Foundation Institute.

The extent of the couple`s personal involvement in promoting the Brain Research Foundation, which they also founded, can be read in a 1955 Tribune news story. It told of their home being used by volunteers to package 70,000 boxes of Halloween candy to be sold to raise funds for brain research.

In addition to three honorary doctorates, Dr. Gibbs or he and his wife received the Mead Johnson Award (1938), the Lasker Award (1951), the Distinguished Service Award from the Illinois Professional Council (1956), the Archibald L. Hoyne Award from the Chicago Pediatric Society (1979) and the Golden Brain Award from the Brain Research Foundation (1984).

Survivors include two sons, Erich and Frederic Jr.; four grandchildren;

and a sister.

Memorial services for Dr. Gibbs will be held at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 31 in the Kenilworth Union Church, 211 Kenilworth Ave., Kenilworth.